Quenching is an important step in many types of mineral processing, including coke processing. During quenching, a quench tower releases a large amount of water onto heated coke in a quench car in order to quickly cool the coke. The pre-quench coke is extremely hot, sometimes having a temperature greater than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the coke is cooled, it can be handled on transfer belts and be screened and sent to the customer.
Traditionally, a large amount of coke is lost in the quenching process. More specifically, the combination of the force of the quench spray and the expansion of the quench water as it forms steam causes some of the coke to pop or fly out of the top and upper side edges of the quench car. This coke then falls by the wayside or is passed into a collecting water pit. To recover this coke, the water pit must be dredged, a costly and time-consuming process. The coke recovered from the pit is high in moisture and requires drying and sieving to reclaim, as the coke must have a relatively low moisture content to be useful to many customers. Therefore, there exists a need to improve coke recovery during the quench process.